Our Citizen Science Projects

Our Reef and Oyster Restoration Work

In addition to running sailing charters, our passion is the Chesapeake Bay environment. We are helping to improve water quality and fishing conditions on the Bay, Base Camp Sailing put together this short aerial drone video of a barge loaded with 300 tons of unwanted concrete pipe as it awaits transport from Galesville, MD, to a reef in Tangier Sound 70 miles south of town. These materials will be used to restore a reef that will develop into prime habitat for fish, oysters, and grasses.

Taking a water sample on the Chesapeake Bay for Adventure Scientists and their Global Microplastics database.

You are outside in a beautiful location bagging yet another adventure. Views are magnificent, air is fresh and mind is laser focused on your next move. You are in the zone, pushing your limits. The last thing you may be thinking is "I need to get a water sample right here and now."

Aboard Base Camp, we have been doing just that and much more. We are helping to study the bay. We are using our sailboat as a research vessel and always looking for more ways to help scientists and researchers by collecting hard-to-obtain data using a truly environmentally friendly form of transportation, the wind in our sails, as we sample the waters of the Chesapeake for microplastics and more.

Currently we have 2 projects underway aboard Base Camp, our research vessel. These two projects are described in detail below. We are also starting to formulate a huge and exciting plan for more projects that we will launch during the 2017 season.

2018 Citizen Science projects:​

Manta Trawl Microplastics Sampling in the Chesapeake Bay:We just landed ourselves a brand new manta trawl in partnership with the 5 Gyres Ocean Research Institute. A manta trawl is a net system used to collect plastics and microplastics floating on the surface of an ocean or bay. This trawl resembles a manta ray, with metal wings and a broad mouth. Using our sail boat and with NOAA and Smithsonian scientists, we plan to sample and analyze large areas of the Chesapeake Bay for plastic pollution content and raise awareness of the plastics that are mostly naked to the human eye yet are all around us on the Chesapeake. In addition, our results will be added to the 5 Gyres Global Estimates database.

​Wasterwater treatment plant plastics outflow study: Status Completed in 2017With more than a dozen water treatment plants in close proximity to the Chesapeake Bay and some plants releasing treated water outflow directly into the bay, we hope to study the effectiveness of plastics removal from this treated water. The goal of Our study is to sample water upstream of the WWTP and compare it to samples take below the discharge. Comparison of the results should give an idea of how thorough the treatment plant process is being completed. Here is a short video we put together while collected sample below a very large waste water treatment plant in Maryland. Here is a video we made of the sampling.

Everglades National Park 10,000 Islands Wilderness Plastics Study: Completed in 2017​Although a long way from the Chesapeake Bay, the Everglades NP is a pristine park that was created specifically to protect its beautiful and fragile ecosystem. It's the largest tropical wilderness in the US. We will complete a study of the waters with strategically targeted water sampling and testing for microplastics content. We will be launching a wilderness expedition and sampling from kayaks throughout the 10,000 islands section of the park. Our goal was to publish a field note and get our results added to the Adventure Scientists Worldwide microplastics map and database.

​​UPDATED:: Our study is complete. The Field Note is posted HERE. And the samples from our field research have been analyzed. From the 4 samples we took, the results show practically no microplastics in any sample. That is great news for the Everglades.

A Call for Scientists: Status-OPEN FOR REQUESTSLastly, we are inviting scientist who need research data from the Chesapeake bay to come aboard Base Camp and use our collecting expertise and boat for their research, study, data gathering and more. We are a capable and proven crew with a reliable and environmentally friendly sailboat at the ready. More details and contact information can be found HERE.

Our First Ever Project was in 2016 and is still ongoing: We are working to collect water samples, as members of Adventure Scientists​. We am helping with a worldwide study of microplastics in our oceans and waterways by collecting 1 liter waters samples throughout the bay and sometimes beyond. Read our Field Notes article.

Microplastics are plastic particles smaller than five millimeters in size. Due to their small size, most of these particles are invisible to the naked eye and require a microscope to be seen at all. They likely pose an environmental and human health risk when they enter our waterways. These tiny plastics enter the food chain when ingested by aquatic life, accumulating in birds, fish, marine mammals and potentially humans.

Laboratory results from just a few of our Middle Chesapeake Bay 1 liter water samples.

Adventure Scientists have found microplastics in the vast majority of marine samples collected, from places including Maine, Alaska, Argentina, Thailand and Antarctica. These microplastics may be tiny but they present a less than a tiny problem.

Findings: Our samples from the middle Chesapeake bay have been analysed and found to contain on average 20 pieces of plastic per 1 liter of surface water. This map shows current results with my samples being analyzed as we continue to map the bay and its tributaries.

The Adventure Scientists study is now moving upstream from the oceans to tributaries like the Chesapeake Bay. Our goal is to gather a comprehensive microplastics dataset from the samples we collect on our adventures throughout the entire Chesapeake. Adventure Scientists will test our water samples for plastics and use that information to zero in on some of the many sources of these particles and also build even more awareness of the probably locally and throughout the world.

Our Second Project is still ongoing: We have joined the West/Rhode Riverkeepers organization to partner in the Maryland Oyster Restoration Program. We have oyster spat to care for over the next year. Oyster spat may not be a very attractive name, however that is what a baby oyster is called and these spat can be vital for increasing water quality in the Chesapeake Bay. Oysters are filter feeders and help keep the waters clean. We have 2 cages with a total of about 100 spat that each filter about 50 gallons of water a day. Cleaner and clearer bay water will promote the growth of underwater grasses, such as wild celery, which serve as important habitat for other species.​​In about a year our spat will quadruple in size and be relocated to their permanent home, a large designated reef site on the Rhode River with tens of thousands of their oyster friends. This living reef will continue to reproduce and grow into a huge and complex structure where many aquatic species, such as fish and crab hunt for food and hide from predators.